After graduating from Southmoore High School as the school’s first All-State volleyball star, Amy Serowski’s journey took just about as far from Moore as you can go.
“So, I went to King University in Bristol, Tennessee,” said Serowski, “And I played there for four years. The other thing that happened was that I transitioned to libero, which was a completely different position than I was used to playing.”
The libero is easy to spot on the volleyball court. They wear a jersey that is a different color than the rest of their team. The easiest way to describe precisely what the libero DOES is to think of them as an extended defensive specialist who plays strictly on the back row. As she has at every level of the sport, Serowski sank her teeth into the role and was named All-Conference libero three times.
The switch to libero was also a change that led Serowski to coach the sport she loved to play.
“I never really saw myself as a coach or a teacher, to be honest,” said Serowski. “I’ve always loved playing volleyball, but it seems like everybody in my family coaches volleyball, and I always thought I would do something else.”
Serowski says that when she was selected as a college team captain, she began to spend time going through game film and scouting with their coach. She also found herself paired up with recruits who visited the King College campus. Other players began to come to Serowski for advice when their serve or other parts of their game weren’t working. The final domino fell after she began coaching a club team during her senior year.
“I was coaching club just to make some money while I was in college,” said Serowski. “My coach would come to my practices to help out from time to time, and he told me, ‘You have too much great volleyball knowledge to not share with others.”
Serowski says she began to enjoy coaching and quickly fell in love with it, taking a graduate coaching position at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina. She returned home to Oklahoma two years later, arriving in December of 2019, just before the COVID pandemic was ramping up. Shortly after that, she took a job teaching and coaching volleyball at Newcastle.
“I never saw myself as a teacher, ever,” said Serowski. “I majored in business and sports management, so I taught leadership, freshman English, and Senior Capstone at Newcastle. At Southmoore, I’ll be teaching business classes like accounting and fundamentals of technology.”
Being back at the school where her volleyball legacy began is something Serowski says she relishes. She also admits that it feels a little bit strange at times.
“I work with a lot of people who taught me when I was here,” Serowski said. “The soccer coach and I were joking around the other day about how weird that felt. And Coach George is the AD now. When I was there, he was the wrestling coach, and I was a wrestling manager for one year. So, now they’re my colleagues, and it’s a different kind of relationship. It’s kind of cool, but still a little strange at times.”
The other thing Serowski is relishing is the challenge of leading the Southmoore volleyball program to a higher level of competitiveness. She remembers the days playing for the Sabercats and her mother, Janet Brannon, as head coach. The Sabercats made their first trip to the State volleyball tournament during the 2013 season. That’s the first and only volleyball team from Moore to reach the State tournament. Serowski says it will take a lot of work on the foundation to reach that level again.
“We had a lot of youth programs back then that have dropped off,” said Serowski. “Luckily, the interest in volleyball has grown lately, and I’ll probably have about 60-to-70 kids in my junior high program. We just need to start implementing the skills part of the game and keep them involved in club, camps, or youth leagues, and it will help us become more competitive.”
Away from the court, Serowski is preparing for marriage to her fiancé next year.
“He’s in the Army and stationed down at Fort Sill,” said Serowski. “Right now, he’s in Iraq, so I have a lot of ‘me time,” and I get to focus on my job and career. But I’m really looking forward to him getting back and probably getting a dog soon, too!”
Serowski says she enjoys unwinding by binging on Grey’s Anatomy and The Flash. While she enjoys the DC universe when it comes to television, she prefers Ant-Man and the Marvel movies on the big screen. But she still spends a lot of time strategizing on how to return the Sabercats to the top of volleyball mountain in Moore and Oklahoma.
“It’s strange. I thought I was going to end up in Hilton Head, South Carolina,” said Serowski, “But I guess Sabercat navy’s in my blood! I’m just excited to build on the traditions we’ve had here and grow the program.”
